Taliban Have ‘Kill List’ Of Gay People In Afghanistan: NGO

The Taliban government is keeping a “kill list” of people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community in Afghanistan, forcing many to live in hiding, according to a Canadian non-profit organization.

The insurgent group may be planning to punish people in same-sex relations with death under its strict interpretation of the Sharia law, according to Kimahliu Powell, executive director of the Rainbow Railroad, the Canadian LGBT+ organization in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

“This is a really scary time to be in Afghanistan,” Powell told France 24. “We now know for sure the Taliban has a ‘kill list’ circulating, identifying LBTQI+ persons.”

The “kill list” likely includes the names of the people that foreign rights groups tried to evacuate during the days and weeks leading up to the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Powell also claimed that the Taliban have used “entrapment” schemes and data leaks to add more names to their list.

“[Some] individuals who have reached out to us have told us about how they’ve received a mystery email from someone claiming to be connected with Rainbow Railroad asking for their information and passport. That’s how we know the information has been leaked,” Powell added.

Reports of the “kill list” comes after a Taliban judge in July vowed to punish gay men to death by stoning or by being crushed by a nine-foot wall, according to German newspaper Bild.

During the Taliban’s last reign in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, the militant group mandated brutal punishments for gay men, including stoning them to death. The brutal punishments are similar to those seen in former ISIS-controlled areas in Iraq and Syria where people engaging in same-sex relations were thrown from the tops of buildings to being shot in the head, according to Metro Weekly.

A 2020 report by the U.S. State Department on human rights practices in Afghanistan also detailed the “discrimination, assault and rape” faced by LGBTQ people even before the Taliban takeover.

The U.S. raced to evacuate thousands of Afghans from Kabul before the withdrawal deadline of Aug. 13. However, LGBTQ activists said there were only very few people in their community who managed to escape the country, according to CNN.